The Paradox of Storytelling

You can't spell 'Sadist' without 'S.T.'. You can't spell 'Masochist' without 'S.T.'. This is ironic and I assume deliberate by the Universe
- Craig Page (that's me!)


I've been speaking to a lot of people lately about Storytelling and different philosophies and personal takes on it. I figured that I should write something to explain my current take on how I view storytelling on a philosophical level. Not surprisingly for me, I find that a lot of it is paradoxical in nature with one side contradicting the other. This is to help me, as much as anything else, to piece together what is going on in my head and to go "Okay, this is the line for me."


This is a personal tract. You don't have to agree with it. You don't have to follow it and I'm not going to hold anyone else to these standards but Myself. You aren't me, I am not you. I won't judge you for your faults if you don't judge me for mine. If it helps you sleep at night, I'm talking entirely to myself and it's very possible I may respond. Anywho:

"Expect a Plan J"

There are two parts to this. The first is to not underestimate your players. They are here to have story, play a game, succeed in a challenge, explore, whatever. They are capable and open minded enough to basically sit down for what is one giant thought experiment. Having said that you cannot possibly predict with 100% accuracy the behavior of your players and their PCs. This is defeatist and insane. I'll give you an example.

One of my players had raised his Gnosis. This is an overall power level for Mages, and denotes their knowledge and connection with the Universe. It ranks on a scale of 1-10. Gnosis 1 is a freshly Awakened Mage while 10 is when you have officially graduated from this Reality and need to move the fuck on (seriously, the Fabric of Reality doesn't much like you any more." So when a Mage raises in Gnosis, it's a big deal. I did a scene with him to commemorate this. His character is also a Master of Spirit Magic, making him capable of speaking to the natural esoteric entities that live in parallel to our world on a level comparable with Werewolves (who are entities of both the Material and Spirit Realms).

The scene started with Spirits walking towards a restaurant in China Town, and the PC is the only who can readily see them. He follows them to the back room, where he witnesses the kitchen workers playing a game of Russian Roulette with a revolver possessed by a mid ranking Spirit. The goal for me was to get the player down at the table to play the Bullet Dance with a possessed gun.

The Player's Response? "I'm going to rush the table and try to steal the gun."

My internal response: "Okay...that wasn't exactly as I expected. Hold please while I take a shot of vodka and try to figure out how to make sure he doesn't get killed by the Spirit, the numerous lesser spirits and the four mooks."

In reverse, though, you don't want to overestimate your players either. In Requiem and and Mage, there have been instances of "City Under Siege" plots where the City is under continuous assault by a foreign element. I consider this to be a risky plot tool for a Live Action Game. Oh, as a plot, I love the pressure cooker that is a siege. But when you're dealing with players, a protracted siege is both problematic and also detrimental to the psychology of the players.

There's a reason Sieges are effective. With the cut off from Resources, Communication, and eventually Hope, people begin to feel desperate and disheartened. While we can say that there is a separation of Player and PC, the player has to deal with it one way or the other. Sooner or later, they too will cease caring and eventually someone will open the gates and go "Come on in, put us out of our misery."

An effective way of doing Sieges in a LARP, I think, is the way Sanderson used it in The Well of Ascension: With Foreknowledge. Half the drama comes from planning and preparing for the oncoming force, and the second half comes from when they are at the gates. Sieges in LARPs need to be short and concise.

In short, do not underestimate or overestimate the abilities of your players. Make a plan, make contingencies either to up or lower the effectiveness of your plan. Introduce problems for your antagonists or benefits as you feel the players are handling. Focus as much on how the players are handling the plot as what they do during it.

"With and Against"

Speaking with several players local and abroad, a lot of discussion has come about Storytellers who are playing against their players. I found this to be a fascinating concept. For me, Storytelling has always been about managing and telling the story. There were ST's who were taking an anatagonistic role with their players. Perhaps it has a lot to do with scope and definition. The games that they were speaking of had a clearly defined world about them, and everyone knew their relevant areas and strengths. In New York's Mage, the setting is located at an abandoned train station at 92nd street. That's roughly it.

The World outside of that station is roughly at the behest of the Storyteller, meaning it's my job to try and describe exactly how this world is defined. I'm also a fan of Discovery over "Attack", a view that I know is not shared much by most gamers. I want the players to know that there is a world outside the station, and that there are consequences to their decision.

But there's a difference between setting the board against your players and characters and actively attempting to counter move them. I think it tends to go with the whole Siege mentality. Sooner or later, you need to keep people interested. Also, I think the problem comes from the fact that people are looking less to beat an adversary in a LARP and more to see resolution. We're Storytellers, that implies that a Story is being Told as much as a Game is being Played. Is one better than the other? Of course. But it all boils down to what is your player set expecting? Are you playing Chess while they are playing Make Believe?

In short, Know your players, know their wishes, know their goals as players. This way it is understood that this is the tempo of your games. That way they can adjust, and you can as well.

"Within and Without"
A Mage player came up to me a while back and said "Craig, I don't like how Rhys (my PC) has become a Plot Vending Machine."  Let me clarify. Rhys is a member of the House of Ariadne, a Mage Legacy who attunes to Cities. As his power increases, he is able to ask the City questions, most importantly, he's capable of finding and locating things anywhere in the City. If it's there, he can usually find it.

This makes life as a Storyteller difficult, both having a player as a member of this Legacy and having NPC as a member of this Legacy. When I became Storyteller, Rhys was still in play and a part of the team in good standing. It became abundantly clear that Rhys' abilities made him supremely convenient to people, including me. Let me clarify: I could use him to say "Oh by the way, this is here. You should go do that." I could do that, but I'd be force feeding my characters plot. That's fucking pointless if I value Discovery so much.

So, in fairness, I've quietly pulled Rhys back away from the main game. With each passing month, his opinion of the Consillium has grown bleaker.  His main departure left this last piece of plot, where he said "I can speak to the City, and the City doesn't like us much any more." Since then he has been even more aggressive towards the Consillium, distancing himself further, refusing to answer phone calls. He doesn't like the Consillium.

I've seen players continue their characters during game. Overall, though, the moment you take an ST position then your character is immediately put onto the backseat. It just makes your position seem self serving. The moment your Story run begins, you are no longer playing a character in this game. Your PC's story is done until your term is over. And for some of us who took on the position at End of Chronicle, will never see resolution.

As a Storyteller, You are no longer playing your PC for your PC's story. Your PC is the City, your story is the story of the City. While your PC can take part in that story, they should exist to Help tell that story.

"The word 'No' must exist in your Vocbulary."

This is self explanatory, but is tied to one of my bigger problems as a Storyteller. Mage is all about the promise of power on a Reality-bending levels. However, there is a habit of "Hey, I can do this, so I'm going to." Which leads to either a use of power that cuts out any dramatic tension what so ever or drags out a scene forever as Mages do some protracted thing using Magic.

There is a clause in the Mage VSS that states "If it can be Roleplayed, it should be Roleplayed," with the reward of giving more Xp to players who do Roleplay And that the  consistent use of Magic when mundane skills can be used is a violation of Wisdom (a Mage's Morality), which then leads to degeneration. But this is all pointless if you don't decide "Okay, enough is enough and this is killing the game/venue/mood of the players."

 But the problem is that I don't want to come off as restricting, right? If you keep denying people actions, then they stop wanting to play. It runs on the same principles of the above Siege scenario. If you limit enough options, people won't want to play any more. This is just the Out Of Character version of the In Character one.

Keep a dialogue going with the players. While you want everyone to be able to do what they want, you also have to take into consideration the good of the venue.

Which finally brings me to...

"The Needs of the Many and the Few"
as a Storyteller, your goal is to take care of the Venue in it's entirety. It's plot, it's status and it's players. This boils to the very real problem of  not being able to please everyone in your venue. Take a deep breath, because you aren't going to be able to please them. There are far too many goals, personalities and perspectives. You can't appease every single one of them. Unless you are that good, which in that case I'll shut up and take notes.  That being said, it is paramount to always be aware of the tenor  and tone of your players as a whole. But, if someone is having problems, it should be addressed.

The needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few is both true and false in this situation. Both are paramount and issues with both are to be taken seriously and with care.


Conclusion

The role of the Storyteller is a juggling act. On one hand you have the large problems, maintaining and managing the venue/domain/region/national/global plot, and in the other you have the issues of the individuals who rely on you, and even yourself. Being an St is about finding a balance. How you find it is your own thing, so long as you can find it and maintain it. It's both incredibly fun to do and incredibly draining and taxing emotionally and mentally for numerous reasons. You have to expect the heartache and the headaches along with the creative process. Hemingway said it best when he talked about writing. You sit there and BLEED. This is an organic process and that requires the ability to grow, and that means pain. You have to accept that, or else you're not going to be able to let the venue/game/domain/project grow into what it has set itself up to be.

Later.